Sorry LZZ but my very good friend the local gamie wrote about 90 odd snagging tickets on the local fishery last fall....I asked him a couple of weeks ago how many of those were dismissed...he said none were dismissed . Your single personal experience isn't representative....sorry. As for lining in front of the officer....well hey if ya hook them in the mouth it's legal right? An officer has no way to know otherwise. Sorry but I don't see the comparison between the drug war and enforcing fishing reg's. The first has had billions of dollars thrown at it while the second has not ever been adequately funded.

It must be fall , all the snaggers are out in full force.
It repeats every year and we ***** and moan and call the F&G and the police.

Same thing, some will get caught and majority will not. There is not enough officers to cover all areas so we are stuck with snagging ass holes.

The reality of this is it will never stop but it sure would be nice to have it become more of a extinct practice then a circus show.

One thing that really irks me is there are people who will complain and say all kinds of crap about the snaggers but when the officers show up they are afraid of telling the officer who was doing what.
Next time you see it happen and the officer shows up escort him to the snaggers and tell them what you saw and relay to them that you will be a witness in court. Stand up and fight for your self and don't be bullied by scare tactics by these fools.
Take pics and get names and give them to the officer, complain everyday if you have to, soon or later there will be an WSP or F&G that will show up and then its pay day. Also if the officers get enough complaint with good info about the snaggers, they will know who and what to look for, and migh frequent the area more often and that might keep the snaggers away.
Little ZZ, I think what you purpose might be a good idea . This might keep the majority of them in the meat holes. I know when I fish area with hard to catch fish,hard to see or detect , you don't see the snaggers . The officers could less frequent these honest waters and concentrate more on the areas where the fish are easaily detected by snaggers. ( I know they try ding this right now) From experience in fishing the quiet waters to the meat holes you do not see the snaggers if they have to work to hard for the fish, they like the easy kill and prefer the meat fishery. So this can free up some officers and they can concentrate hard on those areas only. How about cameras like the ones DOT uses at all the terminal fisheries. This would enable for a office to monitor 10 to 20 areas at one time, the cost would be a lot lower and they would have physical proof of the snagging.

Imagine how many fish wouldn't be in the river if this happened! If someone dissregards the law now and snaggs and keeps then what prevents him from breaking the law again by not writing the catch down and coming back 2-3 times a day, everyday............No is my vote.

FFF, that is already happening.
I am not sure LZZ proposal will solve anything but it might not hurt to give it a shot. It is almost a no loss, they do this now , this way we can monitor them a little better. rather then looking for them on every piece of water in the state. Like I said I think snaggers will stay away from fisheries that are too challenging. They rather goto termial fisheries and do the crap they do any way. Just my .02

But without extra enforcement which LZZ doesn't see a need for how will the snag fishery be monitored? They will still attempt to snag everywhere else....hey it's a nice utopian idea but the reality is that it won't work....they are gonna snag everywhere up until the time that it hits them where it hurts..the pocket book. Simple as that...anyone voting for mandatory loss of fishing priveleges?

I love mandatory loss of fishing privleges for repeat offenders - keep them out of places I want to fish - even too many legal fishermen can be a problem. I think we also need changes in the hatchery system and in fish management so that these kind of overconcentrations of hatchery fish don't happen so often. I realize that most of these problems are caused by the need to bolster fisheries for harvest and and the same time restrict harvest on weak stocks, but still, some clever manipulation of run/spawning timing at the hatchery end could concentrate hatchery fish away from wild fish timing wise, to the point that targeted sport fisheries in the estuaries and tribal nets could be employed to specifically target them. Better yet, tribal fish traps - bonk all the hatchery fish and release the wild fish unharmed. And if concentrations still occur that attract snaggers, then just close the damn place if too many show up. Hard on everybody, I know, but if everybody knows snaggers equal closed fishieries maybe they will become much better self-policers, turn in snaggers, and support getting more enforcement out there to thin out the snagger population. Finally, give the state a break and allow hatcheries to sell eggs from surplus fish for big-buck caviar, to fund both hatchery production and transport of spawned out carcasses to the headwaters for nutrient enhancement. There are not even nearly enough salmon returning to begin to remotely provide the environmental necessities that keep the ecosystem working. Anything but caving in and legitimizing snagging - might as well cave in and legitimize speeding, after all, everybody does it